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HotS RECAP: BlizzCon 2017

Last weekend at BlizzCon, the Swedish Boyband capped off their incredible year with a runners-up finish at the HGC Grand Finals for the second year in a row.

To cap what was an incredible year, we even made a special edition Blizzcon 2017 Fnatic Player Jerseys!

Having beaten Tempo Storm 2-1 in the quarterfinals on Friday, we went on to play Ballistix Gaming, the team to whom we fell one year ago, in the semifinal.

The previous rounds had not been as clean as possible, but a blitzing 3-0 win was the picture of a team understanding the metagame. At 10:40, the third and winning game was the fastest game in the entire tournament.

It was then only a question of MVP Black. Renowned for being perhaps the best team in HotS history. The team who were so heartbroken by our very own in last year’s semifinal.

Game one went well: a double global composition on Cursed Hollow resisted MVP Black’s mechanical prowess, and Fnatic went 1-0 up.

But, as the two teams battled it out on the Nexus, we went into a fourth game 2-1 down. Despite falling to an early deficit to the Koreans, the isolation synergy of Breez’ Stitches and scHwimpi’s Medivh led to us striking back and taking several forts.

One last fight, however, and MVP Black took the third game they needed.

As the dust settled, there’s reason for disappointment but even more reason to be proud of an incredible year.

In 2017, the boys finished first in two phases of the Europe Pro League, got to the final of the Phase #1 Western Clash, won Phase #2 Western Clash without dropping a single map, ended second at Blizzcon, and - of course - became the first non-Korean HGC World Champions at the Mid-Season Brawl.